Desperado Orchestra®

“Truth, sincerity and music directly from the spirit. My music is made to uplift and inspire all people to be better than they are and unite under the shared beauty of the human experience.”

-J Lawson

J is a talented multi-instrumentalist, singer and educator for over a decade. As a professional musician for the last 15 years his experiences collaborating with other artists of different backgrounds on a national level has given him a strong musical foundation and a variety of experiences to bring to his listeners. 

His musical background stems from the strong influences of musicians in his family. Particularly as a youth, his cousins from his Mother’s side of the family, Charles Jenkins (Grammy Award Winner – songwriting) and Carlton Jenkins, when taken the time to mentor J as a young kid, left an unforgettable foundation of music theory and long lasting artistic impressions. Their leadership helped inspire him at a young age to continue creating and working hard.

As a self-taught musician with talent, Lawson explored his potential as a musician during his military and collegiate years in Tallahassee, FL. Lawson spent a lot of time during those years cultivating his own sound and creating his own songs in his first professional band, Runaway Soul. With the help and support of local artists Cody Chesnutt, Kendra Foster (Grammy Award Winner), Ontario Reshard and Royce Lovett, Lawson either performed or wrote music collectively with these artists. His original songs, eventually lead him to Los Angeles, CA where he met his wife and co-producer, Megan Fong. Desperado Orchestra became the name that he strongly identified with, as it comes from Spanish, meaning: desperate. It was a term used for emigrating populations of native Californians who refused to use the El Camion Real, (the historic route 101) where the missionaries set up toll roads for travelers walking to and from the Northern and Southern areas of California.

While in California, Lawson and Fong toured throughout the state, and recorded their first two singles released on internet radio and sold on iTunes, “5 In the Middle” and “I’m Not Afraid”. They performed regularly in their Long Beach neighborhood and continued to write new materials. Keeping in the blues tradition, Lawson was hardly stationary, moving to different American communities of the world. Lawson and Fong moved as far away as China to perform and work, and later to Hawai’i where he now resides. 

“I promote diversity and personal expression through collaboration with creative people from different artistic and cultural backgrounds in the US and abroad. The basis of my work exists around the American improvisational music forms.”

-Megan Fong

Megan is a talented and dedicated educator and performer. She has spent the past 20 years performing professionally and teaching in New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA, Shanghai, China and now the County of Kaua’i. She is also a dedicated organizer of educational and artistic festivals and workshops. Her artistic focus involves engaging younger and older audiences to experience art and creativity on communal and multi-cultural levels that encompass the American identity. Megan was a student of Wadada Leo Smith, and Leroy Jenkins, two artists that have influenced her heavily in the art of improvisation and the techniques of jazz composition. It was through her experience studying under these two Jazz legends that led her to a collaboration with J Lawson, an artist that lived and breathed music deep within the African American community.

In 2009 J and Megan heated two singles, “5 In the Middle” and “I’m Not Afraid”, touring through California, and performing regularly in their Long Beach neighborhood. They solidified their dedication to creating original music together and have co-created “Outer Space”, “Just Dancin'”, “People Say”, and “Tell the Youth the Truth”. Megan’s approach to playing her instrument and composing music, delicately and intentionally weaves improvisational and written elements together, to form a sound that truly expresses both creative voices. She has arranged music for Desperado Orchestra for the past 14 years, and has been commissioned to arrange strings for pop, reggae and rap music for Strings of Hawaii (County of Kaua’i), The Dugout (New York) and Cavalier (New Orleans).